Review:
'GREEN, LIZ / LOIZEAU, EMILY'
'London, Bush Hall, 18th November 2009'
- Genre: 'Pop'
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Our Rating:
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The piece de resistance of many a performer's live set these days is the unexpected cover: take a song, perhaps something from a more leftfield genre (or, alternatively, something inordinately mainstream) and reduce or enhance accordingly. It if works then it's usually because of an intelligent deconstruction of the song in question and failure often comes when the goal is nothing more than reaction.
Yet I'm a fan of this spectacle and in the case of EMILY LOIZEAU I'm gobsmacked at her gallic, jazzy interpretation of The Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" tonight at Bush Hall. "Hold your head up", she barks at her band, "keep your head up" - more Dietrich than Piaf.
But that's for later. Unlike the largely French crowd who are here tonight for Loizeau, I came for LIZ GREEN. She gave one of the most engaging and memorable shows I've ever seen in a tiny festival tent in Dorset, way back in '07 and I'm eager to see what kind of place she's in right now. Back then, the girl was fighting back nerves - shellshocked by the waves of adulation and awe she was getting, just moments into her musical career.
Two and a bit years later, she's gained much in style, confidence and delivery. Channeling the desolate lyrical damnation of Hank Williams along with a fine English folk sensability a la Bert Jansch, Green's songs offer glimpses of fragility, a life of ordeals and tragedy contrasted against struggle and self-empowerment.
Her opening a capella number - delivered perfectly - has the entire room rapt in attention but "Bad Medicine" and "Midnight Blues" are still the highlights of her set. Both songs resonante with otherworldly melodies and are executed with defter hand than the last time I saw her.
An album is apparently forthcoming - its birthing time likely a testament to how carefully her career is being managed, which should probably serve as sound advice for other performers who get too much too soon. There's no doubt in my mind that the audience for Liz Green is out there, waiting and potentially quite substantial. She's a tender star, already shining bright and poised for much.
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If Green represents the autobiographical and confessional then Loizeau's shtick is firmly theatrical. She emerges onto the Bush Hall stage in a revealing little black number, bare footed and stomping with bombast to punctuating cello swipes. Before she tackles Lennox and Stewart we are treated to a tight set of jazz-splashed numbers from the Prix Constantin winning "Pays Sauvage". The standout "Sister" loops a sweet-as-honey recorder riff that Loizeau urges the audience to whistle, providing an cheery accompaniment to a tender musing on sorority.
The set dips a little in the middle. Loizeau is far more engaging on her feet - mobile, lythe and kinetic - than at the piano. Her better songs are as much about physical movement as sound. While she's firmly in debt to an ancestry of chanson, there's a contemporary splash of colour in the phrasing; a little Polly Harvey here, a touch of Debbie Harry there. Credit must also go to her two band members, who provide a room-filling sound by means of some mean muted trumpet impersonatins and cello-bashing.
And then there's the remarkable reworking of "Sweet Dreams", delivered in the centre of the audience with more than a hint of Weimar: a satisfying end to a truly magical evening.
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author: Paul Bridgwater (photos by the author)
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LIZ GREEN
EMILY LOIZEAU
ENCHANT THE BUSH HALL
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